An Intervention to Improve Critical Online Reading in Secondary School

In the present study we aimed at testing the efficacy of VITO (Valuta and Integra Testi Online, English translation: Assess and Integrate Online Texts), an intervention for secondary school students to train two critical skills when reading multiple texts: sourcing and intertextual integration. A total of 144 adolescents attending 7th and 8th grade participated in the study. Students were assigned to an experimental group or a control group. The experimental group participated in the VITO intervention, which included three sessions focused on sourcing and intertextual integration when sources are selected, when sources are read, and when an essay is written based on sources. Students’ outputs were coded by argumentative quality and source mentions. Moreover, a sub-sample of 82 students completed an inventory assessing source knowledge before and after the intervention. The results confirmed the efficacy of VITO on argumentative quality, source mentions and judgment of source choice.